North South Divide's first live outing was on 6.4.02 at The Corner Cafe in Scarborough, memorable for lots of reasons including great performances by our singer-songwriter mates Carl Hutchinson and Martin Groom, the opportunity to rub shoulders with various local Death Metal proponents from the region, and Dwayne's one and only episode of stage-fright. We were supporting a fund-raising event organised by our friend Tim Lawes in support of Antara, a hospital in Calcutta where Tim had spent a year doing voluntary work.

Antara was founded over 30 years ago in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in response to the very real need for mental health care for the very poorest men and women in and around the city. Today Antaragram, the centre of its work, provides accomodation for 170 patients as well as out-patient care for approximately 1500 out-patients in the inner city and rural districts. To find out more you can visit www.antaragram.org. A secular, charitable and voluntary organisation, it receives no government funding and must therefore turn to its supporters to sustain the treatment it offers free of charge. The network of support extends around the world with contributors from the USA, Netherlands, Germany and the UK. A website for supporters provides more details on how you can help and get involved in furthering Antara's work www.siac.org.uk. Currently Antara is focussing on extending it's support to vulnerable children, orphaned or on the streets, and those whose parents have mental health problems.

Francis Dunnery

Francis is a singer-songwriter from Cumbria who has been an inspiration to Dwayne for many years. More recently Dave came across him when Francis performed a memorable live gig in The Roscoe in Leeds, and instantly joined the appreciative throng. Having been a founder member of the progressive rock band It Bites he went solo some years ago, and he has a very commited and growing following around the UK and in the States where he now lives. He is currently working on a masters degree in Psychology. He has his own record label Aquarian Nation.

Has been a major source of inspiration for both Dave and Dwayne for as long as either can remember and continues to rock the boys. Having originally been the guitarist with Genesis in its heyday, Steve has established a succesful and varied solo career, including some more recent inspiring classical guitar work. We are looking forward to seeing him live in Leeds in October. Dwayne has got a copy of his latest CD To Watch the Storms and reckons it's a cracker, full of that originality that we know and love so well.

(DL) The Edinburgh poet Norman MacCaig continues to be a great source of inspiration; I would have loved to have met him during the time I was living in Edinburgh. I love the way he moved between incredibly well observed and well described detail of daily life to the layers and layers of underlying meaning that he connected to, and with an economy of words that I find simply stunning.

(DL) Another Celtic poet, another genius. Having got to know the poetry of Norman MacCaig first I then discovered the links with the nobel prize-winning Seamus Heaney. I often have one of his cassettes on in the car when I am driving around at work - recently I have been listening to Electric Light.

The Bhundu Boys are a fantastic bunch of musicians from Zimbabwe who regularly tour the UK and have been a favourite of John Peel for a long time. Dwayne has got to know them personally over the years from frequent attendances at their concerts, and they came to play at his and Margaret's wedding reception in Birmingham last year, where they were brilliant. Some of Dwayne's bass playing arrangements have a zimbabwean jit-jive feel to them for which the Bhundu Boys can be thanked.

They don't as yet have an official website to link to but you can find an overview of their origins and work on www.artistdirect.com.